Reading Eagle: Susan Keen |
Albright senior Stephan Brown at the Albright Experiential Learning and Career Development Center. Brown was well prepared for his job search and will graduate with a job offer at a global media public relations agency.

Berks college graduates have reason for optimism in job market

Facing a job market that has grown steadily in the past few years, college seniors graduating this month say they are cautiously optimistic about the future.

Many have already landed jobs, and most who haven't are confident they won't be unemployed forever - they're banking on hard work, perseverance and a healthy dose of good luck.

Jacob Sims, a senior communication studies major at Kutztown University, summarized an attitude shared by many students taking their first steps into the job market this year. The 22-year-old has applied for 20 to 30 jobs and is hopeful one will pan out.

"I'm definitely not freaking out, but it's definitely not fun," he said. "Mostly I'm just trying to get it over with."

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Five or six years ago in the wake of the Great Recession, students were less inclined to approach the job-search process with reluctant confidence and more likely to proclaim themselves on the verge of a nervous breakdown.

After sending out a flurry of unsuccessful applications, many opted to pursue graduate school, hoping additional degrees would appeal to future prospective employers.

Not so anymore. Experts say job opportunities for qualified college graduates are more plentiful now than in years past.

According to students just weeks away from entering the real world, their timing could be worse.

Improving conditions

A recent CareerBuilder survey says about 74 percent of U.S. employers plan to hire recent college graduates in 2017, up from 67 percent a year ago and the highest percentage since 2007 just before the recession.

The National Association of Colleges and Employers, based in Bethlehem, found that companies expect to hire 5 percent more college graduates this year.

Andrea Koncz, a research manager for the association, said statistics suggest that after years of slow growth, the market is finally catching up to where it was a decade ago.

The degrees most in demand this year are engineering, business and computer sciences, according to the association. Koncz said female engineers in particular have an advantage.

A recent Zip Recruiter study found that nearly 80 percent of graduating seniors are optimistic about finding a job.

Graduates in Berks County have good reason to feel confident.

Kerri Gardi, director of Kutztown University's career development center, said she has noticed an uptick in job postings in the university system and more employers coming to local and regional job fairs.

A recent informal survey of graduating seniors at Albright College indicates almost half of students not enrolling in graduate school have already received job offers - including all 30 accounting majors in the class of 2017.

Karen Evans, assistant dean of experiential learning and director of career development at Albright, said she expects many more will receive offers within the next few months.

According to a survey the school conducts annually, roughly 64 percent of students who graduated last year were employed full time six months after graduation, and another 20 percent were in grad school.

Success stories

Stephan Brown, a senior who studied digital communications at Albright, started laying the groundwork for his career long before his last semester of college with multiple internships - including one last summer in San Francisco - and a job on campus at the school's career center.

After several interviews and multiple job offers this spring, Brown, 22, will move to Portland, Ore., in a few weeks to work for an international public relations and advertising agency - a few thousand miles away from his home in Philadelphia.

His position is part of a team assigned to the Facebook account, so after 10 weeks of training over the summer he'll be flying between Portland and San Francisco regularly to work with the company.

According to Brown, four years of academic and professional experience made the job-search process manageable.

"If this was freshman year, I would have been very intimidated, but after studying abroad and then doing internships and all these different interviews, what I've learned is that employers really want to know about you as a person - your spirit and personality - more than what you can do," he said. "I wasn't too nervous going in because I knew eventually something would work out."

Lauren Bull, a senior at Alvernia University majoring in early childhood education, has had a similar experience.

A few weeks before graduation, the 22-year-old started working as a long-term substitute teacher at Mount Penn Elementary Center, a position she received through contacts from her student teaching placements.

Bull is filling in until the end of this school year and then plans to start seriously looking for jobs, both in the Reading area and closer to her home in Maryland.

She hopes her current position has given her an advantage and is optimistic about stepping further into her career.

"For teaching jobs, most of the hiring takes place over the summer, so I'm excited to start that process," she said.

Several other Alvernia students studying occupational therapy also said their work placements - part of the required curriculum - either led directly to job offers or helped them network within the field.

Connor Tait, a senior finance major at Kutztown, accepted an offer in September from an investment firm in Malvern, close to his hometown of Media. Tait, 22, had applied unsuccessfully for an internship with the company last year and then months later received an email urging him to apply for a job.

"I don't know, this just kind of happened," he said.

Some in limbo

For some college seniors, the process is longer and more painful.

Some have decided to wait and start applying after graduation because the combination of school and searching for a job became too hectic.

Courtney Roseberry, a 23-year-old psychology major at Alvernia, said she would start seriously job hunting now that finals are over, and hopes for an offer by the end of August.

She eventually plans to earn a master's degree and become an addiction counselor, though in the meantime she's applying for entry-level positions in the Reading area - and dreading the job-search process because it's unfamiliar and overwhelming.

Jaclyn Miley, a communication studies major at Kutztown, also said she hasn't had time to devote herself to applications between taking 18 credits and interning at the university's communications office.

Miley, 22, hopes for a public relations job in the Philadelphia area.

"I feel like I have a really good foundation from my time here at Kutztown, but I'm getting nervous like everyone else," she said. "My goal always was to walk across the stage on graduation day knowing my next step, and it's scary not having that certainty."

Other outcomes

Others aren't quite ready to settle down and start careers.

Ezra Ali-Dow, a senior theater major at Albright, will spend the next year participating in AmeriCorps, a national service program supported by the federal government that pays minimally but allows participants to defer student loan payments. As part of a disaster relief team, he'll attend training in Iowa and from there travel wherever help is needed.

Ali-Dow, 22, didn't apply for any jobs this year and is considering the Peace Corps or grad school later.

"Since high school, I wanted to take a year to travel and give back after college," he said. "I sort of put all my eggs in the one basket."

Anthony Benincasa, also a senior at Albright majoring in business and Spanish, will spend next year teaching English in Madrid, Spain. The 22-year-old isn't sure what the next chapter will be but ultimately is considering a career in teaching.

"I actually had no idea what I was going to do and I was really nervous with graduation coming up," he said. "But I knew I wanted to go abroad so then I applied for this job You only have one life to live."

Karen Evans, director of career development at Albright, said she has noticed more students considering similar paths in recent years, in part because "this generation of students wants to do good."

Getting a job is work

Experts say that regardless of the field, employers choose whom to hire based largely on a range of skills such as critical thinking, leadership, work ethic and the skill of using technology.

According to career counselors, those skills apply to almost all areas of study and work experiences, so students shouldn't choose their major based on often misguided perceptions about the job market.

Laura Kline, associate director of career development at Albright, said for some students finding a career path that fits their interests and skills is half the battle, and learning how to market themselves is key.

"They'll come in with blinders on, wanting to become a lawyer or a doctor or something else without really knowing what those jobs are like," she said. "A big part of what we do is help students make sense of their experiences by asking themselves, 'What does this mean about me,' 'Where can I apply these skills and how can I articulate that to a potential employer?' "

For anyone having trouble finding a job, Kline said don't give up.

"Don't go home and do nothing, even if you volunteer two days a week just to show you have a work ethic," Kline said.

Gardi of Kutztown University said students will succeed in any field, especially if they're willing to relocate or accept a position they may not love to get a foot in the door.

When students are feeling hopeless, she recommends the following quote: "The harder I work, the luckier I get."

Just keep plugging away, she said.

Albright's Karen Evans discusses the job market for graduates during an appearance on WEEU's "Feedback."